In wide area communication systems, a number of sites are used to provide wide area coverage for the communication devices operating in that system. A challenge in wide area communication systems is the identification of the optimum site by the communication devices. In some systems, this problem has been addressed by having each site identify adjacent sites, and each subscriber radio periodically measure signal strength on adjacent sites to identify the site with the stronger signal. This method renders the subscriber radio unable to accomplish normal control channel data processing while measuring adjacent channel signal strength. In other words, the time that should be spent on receiving voice or data is partially spent on locating an optimum channel to communicate on. This could result in delays in unmuting of the audio circuits, delays in transmission, and even missed events. In addition to this, the system requires very complex software to manage the adjacent site ranking process. The complexity of the software is aggravated with the addition of new sites and new subscribers. Yet another problem with these systems is that signal strength received from adjacent sites may not tell the entire story of the position of the site. It is known that the signal strength of signals is impacted by fading and multipath in similar conditions. So, it can be seen, that although an optimal site may be determined using signal strength, that site may not be the most optimum one because of the interfering fading or multipath conditions which are temporary. It is therefore, appreciated that a method of identifying an optimum site in a wide area communication system is highly desired that would overcome the deficiencies of the prior art.